City East Community College Mentoring Program

 Recently I attended a networking event for City East Community College where Mentors and Mentees shared stories of Skilled Migrants who had relocated to Australia and found jobs.  It was so heart-warming to learn about their journeys. Many have pushed through obstacles, many have English as a second language and it struck me how important it is to have someone supporting them throughout the whole process.  As an immigrant myself, I also found it challenging to learn the work culture, where to find jobs, and the employment negotiation process when I immigrated here in 2009. 

The program is run by an amazing woman, Margaret Teed, who carefully matches the Mentees with volunteer Mentors. You can quickly spot her passion for helping these often highly educated and motivated migrants as she’s been driving the program for 5 years. 

I’ve been volunteering as a Mentor for about 2 years, and so far I have helped 4 Skilled Migrants gain professional employment in IT, Renewable Energy and Construction.  I cannot describe how much joy this brings me when someone lands their dream job. To overcome incredible hardships, change countries and get to a stable income is truly lifechanging for them and their families. Many go on to become role models in their community. 

Margaret stated that her Mentoring Program has matched over 460 mentees with volunteer mentors and about 60% of those mentees have achieved professional employment within an average of 5 months of being matched. What an amazing achievement!

One of the speakers at the networking night was John, an HR Manager at TFNSW NSW TrainLink, and he said in his speech that after mentoring Arash, a Skilled Migrant that went on to become a high performer and team leader, it made him wonder how many other candidates he, himself might have overlooked because their resume didn’t fit the criteria. 

I am now helping my 5th Skilled Migrant, Magda, who is a delightful creative woman pursuing a career in Archaeology (which is very project-based) complimented by freelance graphic artist jobs. I just introduced her to a marketing firm and she’s landed a part-time job! 

I love getting to know each mentee, how they came to choose Australia, what gets them excited and what their career aspirations are. 

If you think you might want to give back in our community and become a mentor for this organisation, or even find out how to become a mentee, you can learn more here: https://www.cec.edu.au/mentor-program you or you can email the program coordinator directly Margaret@cec.edu.au.

And a big THANK YOU to Margaret who works tirelessly to help as many people as she can.